Environmental and Community Development Clinic

Students enrolled in the Environmental and Community Development Clinic conserve environmental resources and improve communities by completing legal projects under the supervision of clinic director Thomas Hawkins.

Working collaboratively on teams that may include students and faculty from other colleges and even clients, students answer novel legal questions, create transactional law documents, and educate clients who are a non-governmental organization or a state, regional, or local government.

In recent semesters, clinic students have—

• written a new ordinance for the protection of sea turtles for a Florida county,
• answered administrative law questions related to Florida springs protection for a Florida non-governmental organization,
• evaluated Florida statutes governing real estate transactions and broker licensing to advise a conservation land trust, and
• authored a community redevelopment plan for a Florida municipality so that city could leverage tax increment financing to implement storm- and sea-level-rise-resiliency projects.